Land of the Free? The Real Story Behind the Star-Spangled Banner

Summary

HISTORY This Week

Episode Summary: "Land of the Free? The Real Story Behind the Star-Spangled Banner"

Date: October 23, 2025
Host: Sally Helm
Guests: Tim Grove (historian, author), Mark Leapson (historian, journalist, Key biographer)

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Brief Overview

This episode dives into the complicated history and enduring legacy of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The podcast unpacks how Francis Scott Key’s famous lyrics were inspired by a very specific moment in the War of 1812, revealing the contradictions of early American ideals—especially regarding slavery. With expert insights, the episode explores Key’s life, the circumstances that led to the anthem, and how its meaning has evolved, challenging listeners to reconsider what “land of the free” has meant throughout U.S. history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Debut of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

• Setting: October 19, 1814, at the Holiday Street Theater in Baltimore, during a season of variety performances (01:06).
  • The song’s premiere followed a play, a dance, and comic numbers.
  • At the time, everyone in Baltimore immediately recognized the song’s subject: the recent British attack (03:13).
  • Quote: “One of these acts will stand the test of time...the Star Spangled Banner.” – Sally Helm (01:57)

2. Francis Scott Key – A Complicated Figure

• Early Life: Born into privilege on a Maryland plantation with enslaved laborers (06:21).
• Slavery Contradictions:
  • Key owned slaves yet sometimes defended enslaved people and freed Blacks in court, while also representing slave catchers (08:43).
  • Quote: “He enslaved human beings his entire life...You can read letters that he wrote that are chilling to read today.” – Mark Leapson (06:39)
  • Close family ties to figures like Roger Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision, and indirect links to Frederick Douglass’s birthplace (09:06).
• Broader Historical Pattern: This contradiction was common among the Founders, echoing Jefferson’s stance (09:17).
  • Quote: “It was by no means unique that people who owned enslaved individuals spoke out against how evil the institution...but still didn’t find it in their hearts to manumit their slaves.” – Mark Leapson (09:17)

3. The War of 1812 – Forgotten but Pivotal

• Background: War's causes included British interference in trade, impressment of sailors, and alliances against westward U.S. expansion (10:28).
  • Many Americans opposed the war, with divisions largely along North-South lines (12:26).
  • Quote: “Certainly not everyone was for the war. It was a very split population.” – Tim Grove (12:26)
• Key’s Involvement:
  • Initially a war opponent, Key joined a militia as British incursions neared his home (12:59).
  • Witnessed the disastrous defeat at Bladensburg ("Bladensburg Races"), leading to the burning of Washington, D.C. (13:42).
  • Historical note: Some British troops that burned D.C. were formerly enslaved Americans offered freedom by the British (14:15).

4. Dramatic Rescue and the Battle of Baltimore

• The Dr. Beans Incident: Key volunteers to negotiate the release of family friend Dr. William Beans, captured by the British (16:10).
  • With John Skinner, Key presents letters attesting to humane American treatment of British prisoners (17:16).
  • Memorable Moment: Their negotiation on HMS Tonnant, marked by awkward tension and heated debate (18:05).
  • Ultimately, Beans is released—because of the letters, not Key's legal prowess (19:02).
• Held by British During Bombardment: Key, Skinner, and Beans are kept aboard a ship so they can't betray British plans (20:13).
• Battle of Baltimore:
  • Baltimore, a shipbuilding hub despised by the British (“a nest of pirates”), becomes their next target (21:04).
  • Fort McHenry endures 25 hours of relentless bombardment, audible and terrifying to Baltimore residents (22:12).
  • Quote: “Don’t wonder if my writing looks as if my hand trembles, for the house begins to shake.” – Citizen’s letter (22:12)

5. Key’s Moment of Inspiration

• Witnessing the Flag:
  • As dawn breaks after the battle, Key anxiously watches for which flag flies over Fort McHenry (23:07).
  • The American flag—enormous, with 2-foot stars and stripes—remains standing (23:54).
  • Quote: “That’s his kind of moment of inspiration when he sees the flag flying.” – Tim Grove (24:07)
• Writing the Anthem:
  • Key scribbles what becomes "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the back of a letter, likely while still on the ship (24:07).
  • The tune used is borrowed (“Anacreon in Heaven”); Key completes four verses (24:20).
  • Controversial 3rd Verse: Refers to “hireling and slave”—interpreted as a reference to Black people fleeing to the British; a source of modern controversy (24:20).

6. From Local Hit to National Anthem

• Immediate Reception:
  • The song spreads quickly through newspapers and is first performed publicly about a month after the battle (25:56).
• Slow Road to Becoming the National Anthem:
  • Adopted by the Army and Navy in the late 1800s; sung at the 1918 World Series; officially made the anthem in 1931 after a soprano sang it for Congress (27:41).
  • Memorable Moment: The tune’s challenging range nearly stalls its adoption (27:15).
    • Quote: “If you’re a man and you start on a high note… you’re cooked when you come through the rockets red glare…” – Mark Leapson (27:15)

7. Interrogating the “Land of the Free”

• Historic Injustice:
  • Key wrote his anthem in an America with over a million enslaved people (28:12).
    • Quote: “You cannot argue with the fact that when he said, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, there were a million enslaved people when he wrote those words, that’s inarguable.” – Mark Leapson (28:12)
  • Abolitionists of the era critiqued the lyrics directly, calling the country “the land of the free, the home of the oppressed” (28:25).
• Evolving Ideal:
  • Tim Grove frames the lyrics as an evolving aspiration:
    • Quote: “The definition of freedom and for who has changed over time, as it should, and it should be ultimately freedom for all.” (29:03)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the first public performance:

  • “One of these acts will stand the test of time... the Star Spangled Banner.” – Sally Helm (01:57)

• On Key’s legacy:

  • "He's just known for this one thing, right? And it's sort of an amazing thing, writing what would become our national anthem. But it turns out there's a lot more to the guy." – Mark Leapson (06:01)

• On the contradictions of the era:

  • “It was by no means unique that people who owned enslaved individuals spoke out against how evil the institution… but still didn’t find it in their hearts to manumit their slaves.” – Mark Leapson (09:17)

• Key’s moment of inspiration:

  • “That’s his kind of moment of inspiration when he sees the flag flying.” – Tim Grove (24:07)

• On the enduring paradox:

  • “You cannot argue with the fact that when he said, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, there were a million enslaved people when he wrote those words, that’s inarguable.” – Mark Leapson (28:12)

• On the evolving ideal:

  • “The definition of freedom and for who has changed over time, as it should, and it should be ultimately freedom for all.” – Tim Grove (29:03)

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Expert & Host Favorites

• Favorite Version of the Anthem:
  • Tim Grove: Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl (05:01)
  • Host Sally Helm recommends listening to it—and also trumpet player Arturo Sandoval’s at the 2009 Orange Bowl (29:24)
  • Mark Leapson: “Just a standard works for me.” (05:46)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Topic | Timestamp | |----------------------------------------------------|------------| | Theater performance & song debut | 01:06–03:13| | Introduction to Francis Scott Key | 06:01–06:53| | Key’s relationship to slavery | 06:39–09:39| | Causes & stakes of the War of 1812 | 10:15–11:28| | The burning of Washington, D.C. | 13:37–14:04| | British offering freedom to the enslaved | 14:15–15:08| | Beans kidnapping & Key’s negotiations | 15:41–19:23| | Battle of Baltimore & Fort McHenry | 20:28–23:54| | Key's inspiration & writing the anthem | 24:04–24:20| | Public reception & path to national anthem status | 25:45–27:41| | Contention over anthem’s ideals | 28:12–29:24|

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Closing Thoughts

This episode offers a nuanced, critical, and engaging exploration of the "Star-Spangled Banner" and its creator. Listeners are challenged to reconsider both the anthem's origins and its relevance—especially around the tension between American ideals and historical reality. The story ultimately invites reflection on who freedom has meant for, and how America can keep striving towards the song’s highest ideals.

Transcript

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[Sally Helm]

History this Week, October 19, 1814. I'm Sally Helm. A Wednesday evening show at the Holiday Street Theater in Baltimore. It's the fifth performance out of 24 in the season, but this is the show that history will remember. The audience files into a new brick theater building. The room is likely candlelit, and outside the walls of the Holiday Street Theater, The War of 1812 is raging. One set piece for the show is an epic painting depicting a battle that happened a month earlier in this very city. Baltimore defended itself successfully against a large and powerful British fleet. Theater performances at this time are often like variety acts with many different parts that could overall run five or six hours. First up this evening is a historical play in five acts, Count Benjowski or the Conspiracy of Kamchatka. After that, the audience hears a much admired new song. Then there's a military hornpipe danced by Miss Abercrombie. And finally a comic song, the Patriotic Diggers, performed by a Mr. Blissett. One of these acts will stand the test of time. It will continue to be performed up through the present day. It is not the historical play in five acts about the Conspiracy of Kamchatka. It is instead the that much admired new song. Its title, the Star Spangled Banner. Audiences at the time would have known exactly what the lyrics of this song were about. They describe that big recent battle. The people of Baltimore just lived through it.

[Tim Grove]

But today I think that most people who sing it don't know what they're singing about, really. But I think it's a story worth telling because it was a moment of insecurity in American history that could have changed world history for sure. But it has a lot of twists and turns.

[Sally Helm]

The story includes a wartime captive, a strange, awkward lunch, and an amateur poet marooned on a ship. It centers on one complicated man, Francis Scott Keith, a man who owned slaves and who, as a lawyer, defended both slave catchers and enslaved people themselves. The same man who famously gave us those words about the land of the free and the home of the brave today. Who was Francis Scott Key, the man whose song is now sung over and over in stadiums and on podiums and in high school gyms all over the country. And when Americans sing about the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, what exactly is the story behind those words? For this episode, we interviewed two experts, and one of the first questions we asked each of them was, what is your favorite version of the Star Spangled Banner?

[Tim Grove]

Whitney Houston's at the Super Bowl. Just the ease that she sings it, it's effortless for her.

[Sally Helm]

Tim Grove is right. It's definitely worth listening to, if you haven't. Grove is a historian and the author of many books for young adults, including one about the Star Spangled Banner, both the song and the flag. He's seen the very banner that inspired Francis Scott Key. It's now at the Smithsonian, where Grove worked as a consultant. He told us it's enormous.

[Tim Grove]

I mean, it's about a quarter the size of a basketball court, so it's huge.

[Sally Helm]

More on that later. We also spoke to historian and journalist Mark Leapson, who doesn't have a favorite version of the song.

[Mark Leapson]

Nah. I think just a standard works for me.

[Sally Helm]

Leapson's expertise isn't necessarily the anthem, but rather the man who wrote it. Francis Scott Key. Leapson wrote a biography of Key that was published in 2014.

[Mark Leapson]

He's just known for this one thing, right? And it's sort of an amazing thing, writing what would become our national anthem. But it turns out there's a lot more to the guy.

[Sally Helm]

Francis Scott Key was born in 1779 and grew up in Maryland on his.

[Mark Leapson]

Family plantation called Terra rubra, meaning red earth. He had a very privileged existence growing up. His family was very well off. They had enslaved people, taking care of all their needs.

[Sally Helm]

And Key would continue the practice of slavery after he grew up and became a lawyer.

[Mark Leapson]

He enslaved human beings his entire life. You can read letters that he wrote that are chilling to read today letters.

[Sally Helm]

That are a brutal reminder of the inhumanity of slavery and the casual way slave owners talked about it.

[Mark Leapson]

You know, writing to his mother, saying, hey, here's, I have something for you. I have this woman. She's strong, and she comes with a little girl. And I can chip them up by wagon anytime you want.

[Sally Helm]

Key ends up marrying a woman named Mary Taylor Lloyd, the daughter of Colonel Edward Lloyd iv.

[Mark Leapson]

He might have been the richest man in the colony of Maryland. Huge plantation, hundreds of enslaved people.

[Sally Helm]

In fact, Frederick Douglass, perhaps the most famous abolitionist who ever lived, was born enslaved on Colonel Lloyd's plantation.

[Mark Leapson]

They never knew who his father was. And the rumors were that it could have been an overseer, it could have been Colonel Lloyd's son, it could have been Colonel Lloyd. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Frederick Douglass could have been Francis Scott Key's brother in law.

[Sally Helm]

To be clear, there's no proof of this. Douglas himself searched for the truth about his father and never got it. Beyond these rumors that he was a powerful white man on the plantation, Francis Scott Key did certainly have one famous brother in law, Roger Taney, the Chief justice of the Supreme Court, who authored the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the court held that rights for citizens enshrined in the Constitution did not apply to African Americans. As prominent as slavery was in his life, Key's relationship with race is actually a little more complicated. He supported the institution of slavery, but he was opposed to slave trafficking, which today seems like a distinction without a difference. But it meant that as a lawyer in Georgetown, just outside Washington, D.C. key would sometimes represent the interests of enslaved people and freed slaves free of charge.

[Mark Leapson]

He helped enslaved people as well as free people, and he did it for free. On the other hand, you can go through the records, and he defended slave catchers. Slave owners would hire these people called slave catchers to go and grab people off the street and take them back to Virginia or North Carolina or the Deep south somewhere.

[Sally Helm]

If this sounds contradictory, that's because it is. Leapson says. You saw these same contradictions in the lives of many figures in the early Republic.

[Mark Leapson]

Read what Jefferson said about slavery. He's the one who used the words an abomination. And yet, you know, he owned hundreds of slaves throughout his whole life. It was by no means unique that people, through enslaved individuals spoke out against how evil the institution of slavery was, but still didn't find it in their hearts to manumit their slaves.

[Sally Helm]

Manumit meaning to set free this kind of hypocrisy was part of the time in which these people lived. And this was the America, this young, contradictory country that went to war with the British again for a second time in 1812. The War of 1812 is sometimes called the Forgotten war, meaning most people completely forget what it was about. But the stakes were, were high.

[Tim Grove]

Tim Grove told us, sometimes it's called the second War for Independence, because had the British won the War of 1812, who knows, we might have gone back to being ruled by Britain. I mean, there was that possibility.

[Sally Helm]

America had won its war for independence just 29 years earlier. The country was very much still finding its footing. Meanwhile, the British and the French were engaged in a war for dominance in Europe. And the young United States wanted to keep trading with both. But the powerful British Navy did not want that. So they would hang around U.S. ports and board U.S. trade ships. Sometimes they'd take sailors from those ships and say to them, you're in the British navy now. The British also allied with Native Americans to stop the US from expanding its borders westward. And eventually President James Madison decided all this action justified a war. There's also a group of war hawks in Congress who agree. So in 1812, the US Congress issues its first declaration of war. Madison signs it, and The War of 1812 begins.

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[Sally Helm]

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[Sally Helm]

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[Tim Grove]

Certainly not everyone was for the war. It was very split population.

[Mark Leapson]

It was basically a north south split in General. With Southerners favoring war and Northerners being against it.

[Sally Helm]

Francis Scott Key lived on the dividing line between north and south, and he was originally against the war. At first, the fighting didn't really impact his life. But eventually Mark Leipson said British forces made the war impossible to ignore.

[Mark Leapson]

They started coming up the Chesapeake Bay and marauding along the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. And it was getting a little bit too close for comfort for Key. So he changed his mind.

[Sally Helm]

He decides to join a militia. But before he's even officially in uniform, the British start marching towards Washington, D.C. and key goes out to the battlefield in Bladensburg, Maryland.

[Mark Leapson]

He kind of thought maybe he knew the terrain and could help out, but he didn't do much. He showed up and then got out of there.

[Sally Helm]

In the end, Bladensburg was a terrible defeat for the American military.

[Tim Grove]

The British dubbed it the Bladensburg Races, because they kind of turned and ran.

[Mark Leapson]

And then what happened? They burned Washington, D.C. they burned the White House, they burned the Congressional Library, and they burned other federal buildings.

[Tim Grove]

There are burn marks in the basement of the White House still today from when it was burned in 1814.

[Mark Leapson]

And really, we don't know what would have happened after that. But there was a giant rainstorm, and that put an end to that, and the British troops left Washington, D.C.

[Sally Helm]

Side note here, some of the British troops in D.C. that day actually included people who had, until recently, been enslaved in the United States. Tim Grove told us a few months earlier, the main British general in charge, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, had issued.

[Tim Grove]

A proclamation directed to the enslaved population, promising them freedom and the choice to serve in the military or just to resettle somewhere else.

[Sally Helm]

And so many enslaved people found their way to the British ships in the Chesapeake Bay. Sometimes entire families went out together by canoe. More than 4,000 people ended up free.

[Tim Grove]

I think the motivation behind it was not humanitarian. It was more a military strategy. But they did resettle all of the refugees.

[Sally Helm]

Okay, back to Kee, who returns to Georgetown, where he can see smoke from the buildings burning in his nation's capital. Soon after this defeat and his brief appearance on the battlefield, Key gets pulled into the war again, this time because of a man named Dr. William Beans. Dr. Beans was a family friend of the Keyes. He's in his 60s, a veteran of the Revolution, living in Upper Marlborough, Maryland, where British soldiers are sort of running around causing mayhem.

[Tim Grove]

And so he decides to organize a group of men to go after these soldiers. They captured several British soldiers and throw some of them in the local jail. One of the British soldiers, escapes and the next night returns to Dr. Bean's home and takes him out of his bed at midnight, forced to ride on a horse 35 miles to Benedict, Maryland, and took him on board one of the British ships.

[Sally Helm]

Dr. Beans is now a British prisoner.

[Tim Grove]

His friends are outraged and they realize that they have to act quickly or he'll be taken somewhere and who knows what will happen to him. So I contact the Governor of Maryland and try to get the release, but nothing works.

[Sally Helm]

The Beans family is panicked, and Mark Leapson told us they decide to reach out to Frank Key. Frank, that's how he was known to his friends and family.

[Mark Leapson]

Now, Frank was a big lawyer in dc. He was famous for his oratory and for how convincing he was before juries. So they wanted this guy to argue their case with the Brits, basically get.

[Sally Helm]

On board a British ship, negotiate and bring Dr. Beans home. And Key says, I'll do it.

[Mark Leapson]

During the War of 1812, prisoner releases and prisoner exchanges were common. And he got on his horse and he rode up from Georgetown to Baltimore, where he met Skinner.

[Sally Helm]

John Skinner was an agent for the government, someone who specialized in prisoner exchanges. He brought a bit of leverage with him. Letters from British soldiers currently imprisoned in America. From writing about how well they had been treated, they hoped this would help convince the British to release Dr. Beans. Key and Skinner don't know exactly where the British ships are, but they get on a sloop and head out into the Chesapeake Bay. And eventually they find the fleet which is at that very moment preparing for some kind of attack. There's a whole armada out there. But nevertheless, around 2pm, Kee and Skinner are welcomed on board the HMS Tonnant.

[Mark Leapson]

They sat down and had lunch or dinner and drank some wine with the Brits.

[Tim Grove]

It must have been awkward. I would have loved to have been at that table. I like to imagine Francis Scott Key, who certainly, I'm sure, never imagined himself having a meal on the flagship of the British Navy which has just been attacking his country. It must have been very surreal.

[Sally Helm]

Dr. Beans, meanwhile, is still being held prisoner, and Skinner and Key start arguing for his release. It's going well until one British officer makes some anti American comment. Tim Grove told us.

[Tim Grove]

Skinner apparently was not pleased. He held his tongue at first, but then couldn't take it and he got defensive and the heated exchange happened.

[Sally Helm]

But those letters from the British prisoners saved the day. At one point, abruptly, British General Robert.

[Tim Grove]

Ross says, Mr. Skinner, it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the kindness with which our officers left at Williamsburg have been treated. I wish you therefore to say to him, Dr. Greens, and to the friends of Dr. Beans that on that account and not from any opinion of his own merit, he shall be released to return with you.

[Sally Helm]

And that's it. Key's famous oratory didn't really play into it, but Dr. Beans is free and Key, this is so great.

[Tim Grove]

Tomorrow we'll be on our way with Beans and it's been very successful and this is all working out great. However, the British say not so fast.

[Sally Helm]

While Key and Skinner were on the ship, Leipzen said the British have been preparing for a massive attack on Baltimore.

[Mark Leapson]

They were about to unleash the biggest sustained bombing campaign in the history of warfare.

[Sally Helm]

Key and Skinner might have seen or heard some preparations. At the very least the they know where the British are. So the Brits can't let these Americans go yet.

[Mark Leapson]

They say you're going to have to wait until we start this battle and destroy Baltimore.

[Sally Helm]

Francis Scott Key and his companions are corralled onto the sloop they came in on to tethered to a British ship, the HMS Surprise. Not quite imprisoned, but not free to go. And the battle of Baltimore is about to begin. This is a high stakes confrontation. Baltimore is the third largest city in the U.S. a big shipbuilding center vital to the war effort. The British have a particular hostility towards the city because it's known to harbor British privateers, Americans who would go out and plunder British merchant ships.

[Tim Grove]

Grove told us the British called Baltimore a nest of pirates, so they really, really hated Baltimore.

[Sally Helm]

The battle has a land front and a naval front on land five miles outside the city. That same General Robert Ross who had released Beans, he was leads the British forces into Baltimore but he's killed by an American sharpshooter and the British retreat. The next day the British navy plus Frank Key and company move into Baltimore harbor. Their ships have names like Terror, Meteor, Devastation. Baltimore is protected by Fort McHenry, a star shaped fortification at the mouth of the harbor. The British strategy, if the fort falls, Baltimore falls. And so they begin a terrifying bombardment. The people of Baltimore can hear it and feel it. One citizen wrote to his wife, the.

[Tim Grove]

Firing at the fort has just commenced. Don't wonder if my writing looks as if my hand trembles for the house begins to shake. I don't think that anyone present had ever experienced anything like it. The pounding, just the noise, the ferocity of the battle.

[Sally Helm]

The Bombardment lasts for 25 hours. Not just bombs but also rockets. They whistled as they flew. Key and his companions watched from the deck of their ship.

[Mark Leapson]

At 3 o' clock in the morning on September 14, it stopped. It was pitch dark and it had been raining, so the visibility was very poor.

[Sally Helm]

Key and Skinner and Beans didn't know who won the battle. They just knew it was over.

[Mark Leapson]

You know, they didn't have any. You know, no one was tweeting out, we won. You know, there was no communication whatsoever. So they paced the deck until, what, the dawn's early light. And then Key had his glass on Fort McHenry and there was a flag on the flag pole. But it had rained all night and that flag was hanging limp.

[Sally Helm]

Key couldn't tell whether it was a British flag or. Or an American flag.

[Mark Leapson]

Well, the troops at McHenry took it down and put up a second flag. And the wind blew, and he saw that our flag was still there. So not only did he know that the flag was there, but he knew that the British were defeated.

[Sally Helm]

The flag was huge.

[Tim Grove]

The stars were two feet across from point to point and the stripes were 2ft tall.

[Sally Helm]

Kee was awestruck.

[Tim Grove]

That's his kind of moment of inspiration when he sees the flag flying. Apparently, he had a old letter in his pocket, and he takes it out and starts scribbling words on the back of it.

[Sally Helm]

Key had written poems before, just for friends and family. And both the experts we talked to said he likely also had a melody in mind. It was taken from an existing song, Anacreon in Heaven. The tune had been used for other political songs in the past, and Key would have known it. So he starts writing what would become the anthem right there on the boat, and he finishes it in his hotel, all four verses. There's a part in verse three that many people don't know. He writes, no refuge could save. Save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave. He may have been talking about those enslaved people who made their way to the British ships in order to get their freedom. He says their blood has washed out their foul footsteps. Pollution. Some people interpret that as Key rejoicing in the death of these formerly enslaved soldiers who fought on the British side. We only sing the first verse today, but these lyrics are part of the anthem as Key wrote it. He shows the poem to Skinner, who had been by his side the whole night. Skinner shows it to a friend of his who shares it around. Eventually, it ends up in the local paper. It gets a really positive reception.

[Tim Grove]

People thought it captured the moment very well, and so it eventually was printed in newspapers up and down the East Coast, New York, Washington, Boston, and it's.

[Sally Helm]

Performed publicly for the first time about a month after the battle at Baltimore's Holiday Street Theater. That's where it first gets its name, the Star Spangled Banner. The song becomes a well known patriotic tune, but it doesn't become the national anthem in Key's lifetime. In fact, there is no national anthem yet. And Key doesn't go on to become a great American songwriter. He goes back to being a lawyer. Andrew Jackson eventually appoints him District attorney of Washington, D.C. there he takes on some notable cases where he attacks the abolition movement. In his personal life, he has become a supporter of the American Colonization Society, which advocated for the deportation of African Americans to Africa.

[Tim Grove]

Basically thought that the races could not exist in harmony together.

[Sally Helm]

Key dies in 1843, but the star Spangled Banner continues to be popular. In the late 1800s, the army and Navy make it one of their official songs. In 1918, it sung at the World Series for the first time. And people start introducing legislation to make it the national anthem. But it faced some obstacles.

[Mark Leapson]

It's hard to sing right if you're a man and you start on a high note. You're cooked when you come through the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air.

[Sally Helm]

In the 1930s, proponents of the anthem took an extra step to convince their fellow legislators.

[Mark Leapson]

They brought a soprano to sing the song in Congress, and it did pass. So it has only been the official national anthem since 1931.

[Sally Helm]

This song, written during the Forgotten War of 1812, becomes part of the American tradition. And those words, the land of the free and the home of the brave, are ingrained into American life. But Mark Leipson reminds us, you cannot.

[Mark Leapson]

Argue with the fact that when he said, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, there were a million enslaved people when he wrote those words, that's inarguable.

[Sally Helm]

Even during Key's lifetime, there were people who called attention to the idea that America was not the land of the freedom for everyone. One abolitionist broadside from the mid-1830s read, the land of the free, the home of the oppressed. Above, drawings depicting scenes of slavery, including one of enslaved people being led past the Capitol building. So people have long argued that those words are not a reality, but that they might instead be something to struggle towards. As Tim Grove put it, the definition.

[Tim Grove]

Of freedom and for who has changed over time, as it should, and it should be ultimately freedom for all. So the ideal embedded in the song is still, I would say, a pure ideal that is worthy of striving toward.

[Sally Helm]

Thanks for listening to History this Week for more moments throughout history that are also worth watching, check your local TV listings to find out what's on the History Channel today. This episode was produced by Ben Dickstein. By the way, his favorite version of the national anthem is by the trumpeter Arturo Sandoval at the Orange bowl in 2009. It's amazing. Check it out. History this Week is also produced by McCamey, Lynn, Julie McGruder and me, Sally Helm. Our researcher is Emma Fredericks. Our editor and sound designer is Dan Rosado. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz and Ted Butler. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review History this Week wherever you get your podcasts, and we will see you next week.